The Numinous
by JeremyHopper
Summary: After a seemingly failed XANA attack, Aelita gets supisous about her friends. Wehn she finds that there are doubles of her friends, she dosn't know who to trust.
1. Interface

The Numinous

Chapter 1: Interface

"Aelita, there's a monster behind you!" Jeremy's voice urgently calling out for me to be ready to get out of the way.

"What?" I turned around to see a block right behind me, charging, getting ready to attack. I started to panic as its lasers started charging.

"Odd," I yelled, "Help!" Odd was the only one on Lyoko here to protect me so I could deactivate the tower.

"Aelita!" Odd jumped over from where he was, over my head and landed right on the top of the block's head.

"Hello you miserable beast! Ready to go bye-bye?" Odd grunted and pulled on his wrist as he shot a laser arrow straight into the eye on the blocks head.

Jeremy was anxious, and I knew it was because XANA would be sending more blocks soon. "Guys!" Jeremy urgently exclaimed, "Odd! You need to get Aelita to the tower before-"

"Yeah I know Einstein," Odd said, "But it seems to be too late. The reinforcements are already here."

I could see the blocks in the distance coming. But I knew what to do. "Odd," I tried to say calmly but directly, "I know how to get to the tower but..."

Odd defiantly was thinking along the same track. "Right, you need me to hold off the blocks?"

I nodded and ran to a small crevice that put me further down onto another platform. I knew this place well, I mean Lyoko, but I was starting to lose my memory of everything, being on Earth so much. I didn't have enough space in my memory.

I looked around for what I thought would be a natural staircase that I hoped would lead to the tower.

"Yeah! Jeremy, I see the tower! Or, to be more specific, I know where to find it!"

Jeremy was getting really nervous. "Okay, but hurry! Ulrich can't take care of everybody much longer! Soon the lunch room will be gone!"

I ran as fast as I possibly could, but I was really exhausted from the running on the way here. The vehicle program was faulty, Jeremy had realized earlier.

As I reached the natural flight of steps, I could see around the corner of the winding steps the evil red glow of XANA's activated tower. I hated XANA. I always have. The reason I wanted Jeremy to find the anti-virus to my virus inside me, was not so I could live on Earth, but so they could switch off XANA once and for all. So I could make sure he would never hurt any of my friends again.

"Aelita, hurry!" Jeremy was yelling.

I was in the tower now. I rose up to the platform with the deactivation screen, and as I pressed my hand onto it, it read, "Aelita," and then, "Code: Lyoko"

"Tower deactivated." I exhaustingly sighed.


	2. Vanished

Chapter 2: Vanished

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

My alarm went off as it does every morning, but this one was exactly like the one I heard before we returned to the past. Another same day.

I walked out into the hall and went to the girl's bathroom and expected to see Millie and Tamiya at the end of the line just like before we returned to the past. But guess what?

I was right.

After I got dressed and went down to class- wait. I was by myself. Weird, I expected to see Jeremy in the hall around me. Well, I didn't see him anywhere. Or Odd. Or Ulrich. Maybe they went early... maybe.

As I sat down, I was thinking hard about today's pop quiz I happened to know was going to take place. It was surprisingly hard the first time, after all, it was Physics. Physics, besides Mathematics, is my best subject. I seemed to be forgetting things, but it seemed logical, as I didn't have a thousand giga-flop hard drive to store information in.

In fact, I was so deep in thought I didn't notice that Jeremy, Ulrich and Odd were not in the class today. And I was so deep in thought that I didn't hear my name being called by Mrs. Hertz.

"Aelita?"

I turned my head forwards. "Yes? I mean... here."

"Would you happen to know where Jeremy Belpois and Della Robia are?" Mrs. Hertz asked me. "As a matter of fact," she continued, "Ulrich Stern isn't here either."

"What? They're not here?" I suddenly asked in surprise.

"No." she answered, "Would you check their rooms?"

"Yes..." I trailed off and got up from my chair.

A million crazy thoughts ran through my mind. Were they not devirtualized? Were they still on Lyoko? What about Jeremy? What about me? Why did I make it back? Why did they not make it to class? Were they... No. They were still alive. I knew it.

I went to Jeremy's room first. He was still in his bed.

"Jeremy! Class started an hour ago! Hello? Jeremy? Jeremy!"

I looked at him. He looked pale. He didn't really look alive. I was almost afraid to check his pulse. He could be... no. He was still alive. I knew it.

Or so I thought. I checked his pulse… and there was none. I couldn't accept this. I started talking to him like he was just dozing off. "Jeremy, are you going to get up? Hello? Jeremy?"

I just couldn't believe it. I stumbled in a daze to Ulrich and Odd's room. They both were… pulse less. I was telling myself it was just another of stupid XANA's tricks. They were alive. They were. I knew it.

I left the dorm building in a daze, walking to the only place I could think of to go.


	3. Great Findings

Chapter 3: Great Findings

I was on the verge of tears as the main computer console of Lyoko came to life in a buzz of static and data transfers going on in Lyoko. I was at the factory, thinking that they were still on Lyoko. I knew this was highly unlikely, but it was all I could think of to do.

I pressed a couple keys and the computer started an autonomous search for any avatars present on Lyoko. I was hit with a large amount of despair as it came up with no results. It stated that the DNA scans of Odd, Ulrich, Yumi, and Jeremy were not present on Lyoko.

I decided that the scan just couldn't find them by itself, so I went searching myself, by scrolling on the computer through the many different areas of the numerous regions.

Desert region: nothing.

Forest region: nothing.

Mountain region: nothing.

Polar region: nothing.

I was about to leave when I remembered something.

The 5th region! That was where they were!

I went back to the controls being sure that they were there.

Scroll after scroll after scroll, I checked everywhere when, suddenly, a couple green arrows appeared on the screen. They were there! I was so happy that it was hard to contain. I set up the devirtualization program and took the elevator down to the scanner room.

A surge of energy, a blast of steam and I found Yumi, Odd and Ulrich lying in the scanners.

But what about Jeremy? I was about to panic when I remembered. There were only three scanners, so Jeremy would have to wait for Ulrich or someone else to get out of their scanner first.

I helped Yumi out of the scanner as it closed again and reopened with Jeremy inside.

"Thanks Aelita," Yumi gratefully sighed, "You found us."

"Oh, my stomach." Odd groaned. "The… steam… roller… effect…" He moaned again.

Jeremy smiled quickly. "You got us out Aelita."

But I was confused. "Jeremy, I found incapacitated doubles of each of you. What does it mean?"

Jeremy's smile faded as quickly as he had gotten it. "It was XANA's main attack. The other wasn't the real one. He trapped us in Lyoko and left fake ones here."

I was still confused. "How do you know that?" I asked.

Jeremy just smiled. "It's logical."

I shivered as it reminded me of the time when there was another world like Kadic College in Lyoko. When the fake Jeremy had yelled about Odd's friendship not being logical.

Jeremy's smiled seemed completely artificial. Not a fake smile. I mean _really artificial_. It wasn't just his smile that was artificial. It was him.

Ulrich and Odd seemed the same.

So did Yumi.

I wasn't ready for how artificial it was going to get.


	4. Suspicions

Chapter 4: Suspicions

After we returned to the college, I knew we would have to explain everything. But I would have Jeremy, Odd, Ulrich and Yumi to back me up. I turned around to see that they were gone.

They must've gone to class, I thought.

I shuddered as I saw the principle coming towards me.

"Aelita, "he started, "Mrs. Hertz has told me you went to find Odd, Ulrich and Yumi. Have you found out where they are yet?"

I was about to answer yes, but my human instincts took over. By the way my friends had left, I knew they were planning something. I don't know why, but I answered…

"No sir, I haven't found them yet."

"Very well, "he stated, "I'll let you look a little more, seeing that you seem to know where they are most of the time. But you need to go to your class at 2:00"

"Thank you." I answered, as I looked at the clock. It read 1:30.

I jogged to where I thought my friends would be, and I was right. In Jeremy's room. I still saw the pseudo-Jeremy in the bed. I shuddered as I looked from the real Jeremy to the bed. It was I frightening thought. Especially that if XANA bringing the fake versions to the real world had worked. It would've been chaos.

"We have to take them." Yumi said to Jeremy.

"What? " I confusingly interjected. "Take them to where?"

Jeremy turned around in his chair to face me. "We are going to take them to the factory and virtualize them."

I was mystified. "Why?" I asked.

"Because, "declared Jeremy, "If we virtualize them, it will take their atomic structure and store it in the super calculator, which we can then delete. Then they can't get out."

With all the long words Jeremy was using I expected Odd to say something like he always does, such as, "In English please," or, "Do you come with subtitles?"

But he didn't. He just nodded his head nonchalantly.

"Well let us go." Yumi said.

I still was trying to think how we would get the fake Jeremy, Odd, Ulrich and Yumi out of the college without being noticed. "How do we get them to the factory?" I asked. "And what about the fake Yumi? She's still at her house."

"Don't worry." Ulrich said

"We'll make it." Odd affirmed

"And we brought the fake Yumi with us."

That was strange. I didn't remember them getting fake Yumi.

We went to the factory anyway. But there seemed to be something wrong with Jeremy. I didn't know what was going on. It seemed to be that Ulrich and Odd were weird, too. And Yumi was acting strangely as well. But it was going to get _much _more bizarre.


	5. Clues

Chapter 5: Clues

As Jeremy and I entered the main control room, right above the scanner room where Yumi, Odd and Ulrich were loading the doubles of themselves into the scanners, I suddenly felt as if this wasn't right. Why were we putting these… things… into Lyoko? I supposed there was nowhere else to put them.

Jeremy pressed a bunch of keys to set up the scanner. But the way he was pressing each key… it wasn't the same way he does other times. He always seems to press every same key every time the same way, but it was slightly different this time.

"I'm scanning them in now." He declared. "Put the fake Yumi, Odd, and Ulrich in first. Then the fake Jeremy."

His voice seemed to have almost no emotion. It was _so_ strange. They were all acting this way.

"Done." He said, as he got up from his chair. We left in the elevator, Jeremy and I, as I saw the hologram projector switch off in the middle of the control room.

"That wasn't that bad, was it Aelita?" Jeremy soothed.

For one split second I clearly saw XANA's eye in Jeremy's pupil.

"Jeremy-"

I stopped myself. I knew I imagined it. Jeremy had been in Lyoko, and was immune.

Right?

Ulrich, Jeremy, Odd and I went to the next class. It was exactly 2:00. Just in time.

During the whole class they were acting even stranger than before. Their eye's looked glazed over. But no one in the whole class besides them was acting strange.

Now I was starting to get suspicious.

The class went as usual, except for my friends. They all answered everything the teacher asked about the same they normally do. But it was how they answered that was strange. I just couldn't put my finger on it. I guess it's what you would call intuition.

I was starting to think of different possibilities for why it was happening. But the possible cause that stood out the most was by far that is was a XANA attack. But what I couldn't figure out. I had to go to the factory.

After class I did just that. I went upstairs to ask Jeremy, Yumi or someone to come with me, but I decided not to. They seemed to be too weird, and to eager to get rid of those fake bodies in the scanner.

I stopped in mid thought. The fake bodies. I had a crazy idea. And it frightened me how much it made sense.


	6. Theory

Chapter 6: Theory

I ran to the park has fast as I could and almost jumped down the sewer ladder with excitement and apprehension.

Once I got to the factory I pressed the button to go down through the elevator to the control room. I keyed in the pass code and ran through the mechanical opening doors to the computer seat as fast I could sprint. Then I tested my crazy theory.

I searched through Lyoko for the "fake" bodies my friends had scanned in. I finally found them. But something was wrong. Very wrong.

The bodies were moving.

They weren't just moving. They were running, even Jeremy I could see, but to where they were running I couldn't tell.

I didn't know what to think. So I decided to try to contact them. I pressed the few keys I needed to turn the microphone on.

At that moment I didn't know what to say. So I just timidly, tripping over myself said…

"Is anybody… out there?"

What I got back was definitely Odd's voice.

"Aelita!" he said with short breath as he was running, "Where are we? What happened?"

I still wasn't sure that this wasn't XANA speaking. He has been pretty good at imitating before.

"I…" I stammered and trailed off.

This was just too hard; I couldn't tell who was who. So I just had to leave.

"I can't talk right now," was all I could think of to say.

"But," I heard Jeremy answer back, "Aelita!-"

I took off the headphones and left with my eyes half closed and my head hanging back to Kadic.

I was suddenly hit with the fact that I had missed at least one class while I was gone.

I rushed to my room and looked at the calendar accidentally and noticed that it was Saturday. The 2:00 class was the last course I had for the rest of the day.

I didn't want to go see Jeremy or any of my friends then. I just needing to sit down and chew over everything.

After a while I decided to go talk to Jeremy.

He was still acting strangely. But I just had to talk to him.

After I told him about the "fake" group on Lyoko moving around, he stood up, almost mechanically.

"Jeremy…" I trailed off as he left the room without so much as a comment.

I walked slowly out of his room and looked around the corner to see odd, Ulrich, Jeremy and Yumi coming in my direction.

"Come on," He instructed me.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

Odd looked at me directly in the eyes. "The factory." He stated.

I followed them all the way to the factory, wondering what they were going to do next.

Jeremy instructed the others to go to the scanner room.

Yumi pressed the button to go down to the scanner room. Yumi, Ulrich and Odd got out and stepped into the scanners.

"Let us go Aelita." Jeremy looked at me and smiled.

For one brief moment I saw the eye of XANA in his pupil. I opened my mouth in surprise but turned quickly so he couldn't see.

Following traveling up the shaft to the control room, Jeremy sat in the computer seat and got the scanners ready. He virtualized the gang, with the usual "Transfer, Scanner, Virtualization."

After they were in, he set a timer for virtualization again.

"Jeremy," I asked, "Why are Yumi, Ulrich and Odd going to Lyoko?"

He didn't answer. Instead he grabbed my hand with unnatural force. I cried out in pain as he dragged me to the elevator. He banged the button to go down to the scanner room and left a huge dent in the controller.

"Jeremy, "I begged, "Please! Your not acting right, something's wrong, I'm scared Jeremy! Please – Ahh!" He tightened his grip around my wrist to a point where I heard cracking.

As the door opened I saw the scanners. Two scanners were open, waiting for us.

"No!" I pleaded, "Jeremy stop!"

As if his strength was infinite, he dragged and tightened even harder. I shrieked out in anguish as my wrist bone broke all together. He threw me into the scanner and I banged against the back wall sobbing uncontrollably. I saw Jeremy step into the scanner beside me right before I blacked out.


End file.
